Hello people. New Data Venia update dropped and so I decided to make a rome start guide to help with the understanding of some of the things in the game. I will make video tutorials on things and stuff later but for now I'll contend with this, which is my personal setup and is not exactly how your campaign will go. Shorter seasons means different recruitment timings, quicker conquests etc.
https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...1#post15825284 The new update brings in a lot of fun things. Longer recruitment times, higher recruitment costs/lower upkeep for armies and MUCH MUCH lower upkeep for navies. Higher replenishment so you don't spam. Many negative PO modifiers etc. basically making it a logistic and strategic nightmare to play. Which is perfect for couch generals like me. Unit speeds, mass and other trash has been revised so you finally have heavy cavalry being heavy and light being light. Units do not route in an instant, battles can be lost and you gotta get a bit gamey not to get crushed by AI.
Disclaimer: This is primarily a promotion for the submod so please do not move this into strategy discussion, I'm not here to discuss strategy, merely introduce the submod to new players for >>exposure<<.
Settings/mods: Ultra unit size, 24TPY, generals spawn aged 25-29, civil wars disabled, governors do not get passive XP from sitting in settlements, DV small garrison submod and some RP house rules.
Turn 1: We start at the beginning of winter, spring will arrive at the beginning of turn 7, that means our enemies have time to assemble a mighty force, which is not good. Early rushing is very important and in lower TPY you can
take both settlements in Italy by turn 7 at the worst, here turn 7 is standard. Depends on what the AI does. Ultimately, we want to cheese it so that we take Taras ungarded, but if you want to slog it out, it always feels good to murder
a few elephants in the process. I start with Nobiles because Patricii take diplo penalty which forces a lot of nations to declare wars on us, and that ruins immersion a bit.
Step 1: I would rush advanced construction tech but DV doubles the Research time so it will take really long to reach it and I don't feel like turtling for so long. What we get instead is scholarship for those dignitaries
that will help us stabilize the regions short term, freeing up our armies from garrison duties and allowing our generals to focus on military traits rather than governor traits.
Step 2 : We use the cheap 1 pop slots to build temples in asculum/ariminum/beneventum/cosentia. We want to spread latin culture and rush Public Order bonuses because we will be increasing taxes to the max. Let's call it war time
taxes.
Step 3: Cheese the diplomacy. Factions want to pay you for trade access and we want that. In turn 1 you can skim +900 denarii each from trade contracts, how much cheese you want depends on your taste. Also, unwillingness to trade by Veneti or Liguria indicates that they
view you as an enemy and will most likely attack if your region is exposed/not garrisoned.
Step 4: My strat is the rorarii/jav spam. Always include 1 slinger unit in your army to force AI to charge when in range of slinger.
Step 5: We move our spy behind Taras, and let her level up, while governor is in rome doing the same.
In subsequent turns we move our army towards arretium and the south one near the bridge and continue recruiting. Increased recruitment times mean we must assemble the levies and force early fights.
If you are playing 12TPY you can usually assault Taras when spring arrives as you can 1 turn move from your province to the city. Though beware, if you go too close they might sally out and attack your army instead of going back
across the sea. Which you don't want first 2 turns because you haven't assembled your levies yet. But turn 3 you can force against their stack with cav/elephants. You can also optimize your income by investing cash that you
are not using for recruiting into buildings, cancelling some if you need more denarii. Priority should be capital, then farming/salt/wine settlements etc. But I just keep that cash for temple building later on.
Atm the what to do with settlement options are kinda crap, so we don't bother with those and RAZE EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE. But hopefully those will be redone and make more strategic sense.
Turn 4/5: Etruscans sally out or you attack doesn't matter. Crush the petty army. Issue bread and games in rome, take ancillaries helping with PO bonus for the general (and tax rate increase as well). We use the new Stabilize
region modifier to replenishing our ranks because it's winter anyway, can't move, re-spamming units costs, so might as well. For your dignitary, i take administration and building cost reduction first. Other ones I turn into research/empire maintainance specialists.
Turn 7: SPRING HAS ARRIVED. Initiate siege on Taras with your peasant army, hope you have a good roll and they don't steam you with their elite troops. I hate this battle I make some rams and autoresolve it next turn. You
can fight it, ram both gates down at once, rush the cap with your elite troops and javs while rorarii pin enemy down. Javs eat up pikes if you play proper so you should hold the VP tick down easily. If you need that extra edge
recruit another general and hire 1 merc unit or some rorarii and it will tip the balance in your favor. Trade with athens they give you over 2k for the agreement. Silly Greeks.
Give your consular legions some eagles and dope names.
This is battle against Etruscans. you can that rorarii tie the enemy down, while well placed javs chip at the sides. Their flanks broke earlier, this is just the tidying up part. I'll do better combat tutorial later.
Now, I stop here and turtle for a bit, as well as recruit the dignitaries. Set up my eco well, build lvl 3 temples and lvl 2 buildings. Accrue a treasury and then during next winter spam out legions to take sicily. You can also
rush Gaul, or land in Greece, but I find that for RP purposes it's much more fun to research lvl 2 naval building, take sicily, create a navy, challenge Qart, wrest Corsica/Sardinia from them and only then start wars
in Hellas and Makedonia. I like the Greek provinces, you get marble and can take copper form the Illyrians. Also, it's compact, easy to protect and generally fun place to hang around in (unlike dirty gaul).
Now you can sit back, leave a few garrison around so noone attacks you, but make them cheap. Say 3rorarii 3 range units with a general and turtle up. After that research naval buildings, auxiliary barracks, spam armies take names.
Pro tips: Save often, your first campaign you might want to reload a lot and understand how much affects what. How many troops do I have to garrison to prevent AI from attacking me, where exactly position armies so they are out
of reach from enemy etc etc. When you get a feel for these things you can start playing without reloads (though save because things crash). Be creative with your campaign, it's fun to get into nasty situations but what is more fun
is to get greeks in a nasty situation where your stacks just keep coming.
Thank you for the attention, I will make better, more proper manuals on things and stuff, I just wanted to make the mod more approachable for those who have yet to try it. I also lurk in DeI discord by the name of Stokes so feel free to ping.
Data Venia Rome GC startup PROMO (liek and subscrib)
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